As a sorority mom what’s in it for me???? Casino night!!!!!

This past weekend I experienced Parent’s weekend at my daughter’s sorority. This is my second year as a sorority mom at this particular university. Last year I attended Parent’s Weekend but it started with a tornado and my daughter was so craving “mommy time” that she didn’t want to share me. So we bailed on the evening activities and went shopping….probably not beneficial for the wallet but made my daughter feel a whole lot better.

This year I made it known I wanted the whole “sorority mommy” experience. As you know from yesterday’s post I got to play “house mom” for a bit….wayyy fun !!! But I thought I’d tell you about my “swap/date party experience” (or as close to those two events as I will ever come!)

My daughter’s sorority planned a casino night for the parents and members, to be held in a bar in downtown. It was advertised to have drinks :), food 🙂 🙂 🙂 :), and a band as well as various gambling tables set up for us to enjoy. I was excited!!! I love going to Vegas!!!! I learned to play Black Jack from a good friend on a crazy weekend trip to Vegas and so was very excited to dust off the skills.

For those of you with daughters who are reading this and for you girls out there….you might identify with the next little scenario.

We had a melt down before heading out to the Casino function. My dear, sweet daughter has gained about 12 pounds over the semester. I think it’s living in the house actually. The food that is prepared is great but on the starchy side (remember she’s in the south..lots of sauces, butter ect) and she’s fallen victim to the 11 pm “gather up any and everyone and eat” scenario. So when she announced she was going to break out the white jeans (it’s after Easter…that D Day in the south for white pants and dresses) I was a little worried. I gently inquired if she’d had them on since the fall…ummm yeah…just as I feared….”no”. You know where this is going..right??? The jeans came out of the closet and she did her “I”m putting on my jeans dance” (you should know that she does this gyration of a dance whether her pants are too tight or not) and well….the dance had a few extra grunts and moves and the jeans were a little tight..okay I lied a whole lot tight. I am now trying to coax the kid off the ledge with statements like “they’ll stretch”, “You haven’t worn them in a while..maybe they feel tight because you just don’t remember”, “they don’t look tight”.

I wish I could say that she bought those lines but …NOPE..there were tears, nasty words and in the end she announce she didn’t want to go. I left the room. I have learned with this one, when all else fails…flee!!!!!! After a half hour of cooling down time I came back, white flag raised and we had a little heart to heart about healthy eating, exercise, and the fact that they were tight but they didn’t look bad and the top she was wearing cover the muffin top. We dried her eyes, put a smile (ok so more of a pursed lip look) on her face and headed out to the party.

When we arrived we went to the upstairs where there were 3 security men, one which placed a drink band on my arm and about 20 girls and parents. The band was warming up. We decided to avoid the food (well she decided to avoid the food and in solidarity I joined in..although I have to tell you I was dying to load up a plate!) and get right to gambling . I should add we also decided to avoid the drink. My daughter is not 21 (even though she is in possession of a fake ID) and you had to pay with real dollars…$6 for a plastic cup of alcohol did not thrill me, so we stuck to water.

When we arrived, the president of the sorority gave us each $1500 in play money to gamble or buy raffle tickets with. The raffle tickets were $500 a piece!!!! We bought 2 and put them in the container, hoping to win one of the over 30 gift cards. We then headed to the Black Jack table. I gave my daughter a little tutorial and we began to play. It was after the third hand and I hit my first 21 and tripled my winnings that she was hooked. We played for about a half hour and as the line behind us grew with parents and girls wanting to play we decided it was polite to leave our spots and give someone else a turn. That proved to be a big mistake at first but ended up helping us in the end.

We ventured over to the Poker table and tried a few hands. I haven’t played poker in a REALLY long time (I think the last time might not have been for money but for random pieces of clothing…) and the dealer wasn’t very helpful. As we began to lose money my daughter became discouraged and suggested we go back to the Black Jack tables because she really like that game.

Well…apparently EVERYONE else like Black Jack too because there were no spots and no one was using their polite manners to get off their stools and give us a chance! Really…we had shared now it was someone elses turn. After lots of huffing and foot tapping we finally got two spots at a table with a very nice dealer. Let me tell you …flirting with the dealer, while not advantageous in Vegas, was very advantageous here. And to top it off I was hot on the cards!!!! My daughter’s friend and her sister joined ua along with a mom, dad and daughter from South Carolina. It was so much fun!! The best part being, my daughter now had a huge smile on her face and was having a blast!

No gift cards were won from the raffle and people around us just kept cashing in chips to buy raffle tickets. That’s when my daughter and I hatched our plan. There were three prizes at the end of the night for the people who had the most chips….a $100 gift card, a $75 gift card and a $50 gift card. My daughter leaned over and suggested we make getting one of those gift cards out “goal”. I should tell you my daughter is VERY competitive as am I so we were on!!!

My daughter’s sorority sister caught on to the plan and so she and her little sister decided to give us a run for our money (sorry couldn’t help that one). The dealer sensed what was happening and began to egg us on when it came to betting. The bets got bigger and bigger…I kept hitting 21’s and it became apparent that we might actually do this! We began to scope out the other tables to see who had big piles of chips. There were piles to left and right of us and that really made us nervous. At “last call” we decided to put every chip we had in (so did the sorority sister) and Tah Dah!!!!!! I hit a 21…tripling our winnings!!!

They came to each table, counted the chips and listed the top two people. Amazingly (actually not..the dealer counted the chips) when we pooled our winnings and the sorority sister and her little sister pooled their winnings, we each had $10,000 worth of chips. I think the dear man fudged a little because he didn’t want a fight :).

They began announcing the winners…for the $50 gift card at $9600…it was at that moment we knew we’d won something and the girls agreed to split the winnings half and half since they’d tied. For the $75 gift card at $9800….and that’s when the screaming started! Both my daughter and her sorority sister started hugging and jumping up and down, waving their arms in the air. When their names were announced they went running hand in hand to the microphone and what do you know..they each got a $100 gift card!!!!!

As we left…after thanking the dealer profusely, I hugged my daughter. What a fabulous evening we had and all due to the fact that she was a sorority member and I as a mom got to participate in the best Parent Weekend ever! We discussed how glad I was she decided to put the “tight jeans” behind her (or on her behind) and that she went.

I went back to my hotel thinking how glad I was that she was part of this terrific organization and sisterhood and how lucky I was to be able to share it with her! As a sorority mom I got to share an enjoy a wonderful evening with my daughter and experience the bond she shares with her sisters.

This is the second year in a row the y have had a Casino Night for Parents Weekend. I REALLY hope they do it again next year!!!!!

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1 thought on “As a sorority mom what’s in it for me???? Casino night!!!!!”

you say your daughter has a fake id as if it’s no big deal! you do know why she has it right? if she gets caught using her fake id to buy booze, depending on the state and school. she could be in big trouble. our state takes away all federal, state and local grants, scholarships for at least a year. she could spend the night in jail and be severely disciplined by the school. they take this much more seriously than being caught with booze as it is FRAUD. i’d take that thing away from her and if caught again keep her out of school for a semester flipping burgers. highly irresponsible. my kid got a minor in possession ticket once and had to use his one and only get out of trouble card free. his fiend got caught with fake id buying booze and his family spent major bucks getting his charges reduced due to the problems that were about to happen. i’m not trying to be mean, just concerned. my son has told me about all these sweet sorority girls that are big time party girls (he says most are). but mom and dad are like “not my daughter”. Never say “not my kid”. She has that id cause she’s using it.